We’ve added the first batch of events for 2019 to our Events page – see also below:

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Saturday 19th January 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Friday 1st February 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Saturday 16th February 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Friday 1st March 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Saturday 16th March 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Friday 5th April 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• ‘Looking Back’ walk led by Jim Rippin and Mike Poulton, Saturday 13th April 2019, 10:00am – 1:00pm. Meet at the entrance to Bury Hill Park. Cost £6 payable on the day (all proceeds go to the Friends of Rowley Hills). A guided walk-and-talk over the Rowley Hills with archive photographs. Following on from our very successful ‘Looking Back’ walk in September 2018 by popular request we have decided to repeat the event again this spring. This is a specially designed guided walk-and-talk based around a series of remarkable photographs taken by Jim Rippin over the last 70 years. The walk will invite us to see the area in new and fascinating ways, helping us to reflect on the many changes that have taken place within living memory. Souvenir booklets with old photographs will also be available to purchase on the day.

• Conservation volunteer day, Portway Hill, Saturday 20th April 2019, 10:00am – 3:00pm. Join the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham & the Black Country at Portway Hill for a fun day out meeting new people, helping the environment and learning new skills. Meet on St Brades Close; ensure you are dressed appropriately for the forecast weather conditions, and wear sturdy footwear. You will need to bring along a packed lunch but tea, coffee and biscuits will be provided. No need to book, just turn up!

• Dawn chorus walk, Portway Hill, Monday 6th May 2019, time to be confirmed. Join local bird expert Nick Horton for a dawn chorus walk around the Portway Hill site. In December Nick spotted a Red Kite on two separate occasions over Turners/Portway Hill and watched crows mobbing a Raven. We will also be on the lookout for Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Peregrine, Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel, all birds regularly seen on the hillside. Wear sturdy footwear and dress appropriately for the early morning weather conditions. Meet on St Brades Close at the junction with Tower Road.

• Green Hairstreak search, meeting place to be confirmed, Saturday 25th May, 11:00am. More details to follow!